What should my camera settings/scene file be for my first short?

[MatthewC]

I'm shooting my directorial debut early September, well, my first serious project I guess you could say. It's got a budget of $2000, most of it my money. I've got a crew starting up, lots of people, serious project and one I'm hoping to take away as my calling card and submit to film festivals. Slow paced, dramatic, lots of photographic shots.

We're shooting entirely in the forest for the whole 3 day shoot. Using an HPX-170 with a Letus Extreme (28mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, 120mm f/2.8, 200mm f/4). The natural beauty of the forest is a big part in this shoot, I'm looking for lots of wide shots on my 28mm with that Roger Deakings painting look. A fair amount of wildlife, streams, leaves falling, etc.

I'm looking for the absolute best camera settings that will give me the most leverage in post for colour correction, brightness/contrast, etc. I tend to have my settings with little contrast for more room in post, but all the things like what my color temp, chroma phas, Gamma, DRS, and Matrix should be set too. Pretty much, my entire scene file I want set to the absolute best, to get me the best image. I always shoot Cine-Like but I don't know if that's whats going to be best for this shoot. Any information or settings would be extremely helpful. I could also be struggling for light, so any settings that might help out a bit in that area would be nice as well, so I don't have to open my Iris up and make my DOF too shallow.

My planned shutter speed is 1/60, with 1/120 for my couple slo-mo shots as leaves fall and wind blows, etc.

Thanks in advance!

So, there's a few conditions here to let you know.
- a couple lights, mostly ambiet

 

[MatthewC]

Anyone?

 

[ggrantly]

This is so subjective a topic that the "absolute best" setting is in the eye of the beholder. I will give you one I have been working on for outdoors with the HPX170. I live in the NW so green is part of my life too. This file is pretty sharp, but not artificial, saturated but not excessively so, pretty low noise. If you want the most filmic look, this may not be for you. It is very pretty outdoors, yet bland, since I don't want my settings to dominate the scene. I prefer 1080pXX but this looks good in 720pXX also.

Film Cam
Frame Rate = Default
Shutter = 180
Detail = +2
V detail = +2
Coring = +2
Chroma = +2
Chroma phase = -1
Pedestal -5
Gamma = Bpress
Knee = Mid
Matrix = Cine
Skin = Off

Notes: NW Cedar trees are really difficult with regard to not melting into a blob since their color can be very uniform. 1080 helps this a little and that is why I used Bpress, to notch up the contrast and reduce noise. You may want to notch the pedestal down a little more. Chroma phase at -1 gives pretty true red color, but if you prefer a more saturated red, go to 0 or +1 chroma phase.

As I said, this is boringly pleasant, but you should test this and tweak it to make your own look. I haven't used this indoors or under any artificial light.

Grant

 

[MatthewC]

Thanks GGrant, I'll give this one a try. I've got a Letus Extreme to help with the filmic look, I'm just looking for the most range to mess around with things in post, etc. as it could be a cloudy day so everything should pop. It could also be bright, and there could be waaay too many highlights in the background. What settings would make it more filmic?

 

[Noel Evans]

I've got a Letus Extreme to help with the filmic look, I'm just looking for the most range to mess around with things in post, etc. as it could be a cloudy day so everything should pop. It could also be bright, and there could be waaay too many highlights in the background. What settings would make it more filmic?

Heres what I do. Go to location and test shoot on different days. See where the light is at different times of day. What if its cloudy? Need to test on a cloudy day if at all possible. Im also looking the location and which parts I am going to use for particular shots. If this is your directorial debut and is to be used as a calling card, my best suggestion - use a DOP.

 

[MatthewC]

Heres what I do. Go to location and test shoot on different days. See where the light is at different times of day. What if its cloudy? Need to test on a cloudy day if at all possible. Im also looking the location and which parts I am going to use for particular shots. If this is your directorial debut and is to be used as a calling card, my best suggestion - use a DOP.

I've been there on sunny and cloudy days, the Letus actually handled pretty damn well. I just want to have the best settings for the most tweaking in post, I don't want to shoot it and realize my settings should have been different and I've limited what my editor can do to match colours, etc. I'm hoping its cloudy, otherwise I will have problems with hot spots, fingers crossed.